ABOUT THE SHOW

Renegade Princess is the myth of the American fairy tale undone. Exploding with surprising, raw truth and dripping with self-deprecating humor, the autobiographical tale is woven with humanity and irreverence into a wickedly sharp narrative. Marriage, living in Japan, motherhood and the demands of post divorce life provide a rich landscape for tenderness, humor, heartbreak and depth. Renegade Princess is a quick paced, outrageous and bawdy journey of one woman’s quest to rise above the myth.

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

After watching, the Off-Off Broadway play, Renegade Princess, I’ve come to the sad conclusion that I have lived a pretty boring, drama free life. Ann Marie Houghtailing’s one-woman show is poignant, hysterically funny and always interesting. Her dry humor is a cross between Diablo Cody and Tina Fey. This small woman fills up the stage and her voice has the power of conviction of someone who has a story to tell. Read More…

“In a time when popular entertainment has the subtlety of a hammer, her humor, as well as her ability to craft a story, is refreshingly complex. Cautious and courteous at first, as every princess should be, she is quick to pull the rug from under your feet with a deft yet off-handed quip or gut-bustingly outrageous remark. Her unique and quirky tales ring true with a comforting universality and she is unflinchingly honest in her explorations of the many facets of a story, allowing us the audience to silently or uproariously comment on it with her. (At some point in the evening for the briefest of moments while catching my breath from laughing so hard, I looked to my left and right. To my left sat what appeared to be a balding man possibly in his early 60’s dressed in a no-nonsense grey blazer, and to my right sat a pair of 20-somethings wearing Uggs and North Face jackets. Both parties were howling and crying with laughter.) And yet her story, while at many times exceedingly comical, is not without an equally powerful tinge of the bitter-sweet. Quite a few laughs are flecked with the stains of love and loss, torturous self-realizations, and painfully relatable indignities suffered at the hands of the insensitive. A masterful wordsmith, she knows just the right proportions to give her story the gravity and weight it deserves while all the while never taking herself too seriously.” (Read the rest at TimesSquare.com)

“Renegade Princess is a witty and heartfelt off-off Broadway show playing at Stage Left Studio the first 10 days of March. The autobiographical play both stars and tells the journey of Ann Marie Houghtailing’s life, exploring the agony and ecstasy of love, life and loss. Houghtailing’s sharp writing and commanding performance could very well make her the next Tina Fey.”
(Read the rest at Forbes.com)

“New York City is the center for live theatre, whether it be on a Broadway stage, an Off Broadway stage, or in a loft on West 30th Street. It’s not the place where the performance takes place, heck, no. It’s the performer, and what they do with the material.

Ann Marie Houghtailing has collected some of the most hilarious and poignant moments of her very interesting life and created a 75 minute one-woman show, Renegade Princess. Saying it’s a “show,” would be an understatement. It was so much more, and delightfully so.” (Read the rest at Woman Around Town, NY)

“There is something exhilarating about a highly intelligent woman with an absolutely great sense of humor and wonderful comedic timing. If she is world-travelled, studied at Harvard, a single mother and a successful career woman, as well as a playwright, then there is even more material for her hilarious one woman show. Renegade Princess by Anne-Marie Houghtailing played two nights (Jan 20 & 21) at the Tenth Avenue Theatre in San Diego to sold out crowds and I have not laughed so hard at a theatre production in a long, long, long time. How refreshing to see something fresh, relevant, and deadly funny. Like the best friend who can crack you up, you are just waiting to see what she will say next. (Read the rest in Arts & Fashion Magazine)”

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“Ann marie Houghtailing is an entrepreneur and single mother from San Diego who presented her first solo performance, Renegade Princess. Her piece was the most successful of the evening. The writing was sharp, the delivery well-moderated and full of on-the-money punch lines, and the performance a powerful blend of storytelling, wry humor, and emotional reality. A travelogue of sorts started things off as a newlywed Houghtailing spoke about living in Japan with her husband shortly after becoming pregnant. Tales of a haughty French doctor and neighbors obsessed with her need to wear “pregnant panties” hilariously followed. Later, her marriage broken up, she took on a series of demeaning jobs to support her family, and the humor became leavened with sadness, especially when she related a story about her child nearly dying during an asthma attack. The writing showed heart and intelligence, and Houghtailing, whose delivery seems the sort that might be offered by a woman with a martini in one hand and a cigarette in the other, was first-rate.” – Michael Wade Simpson (PASA Reviews, New Mexican)

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“‘Renegade Princess”, a brilliant, insightful travelogue about marriage, motherhood and this being human. Ann Marie Houghtailing is a master of the written word and performance. She delivers her story with the precision and devotion of a Shodoka – in one clean, elegant sweep she reveals the agony and the ecstasy of love, life and loss with her gut-wrenching humor and pathos. Be prepared to see one of the most commanding performances of your life from an actor who may not have the pedigree of Tina Fey, but is destined for the very same shores. Seriously.” – Michelle Baker Vest, actor/writer/artist

ANN MARIE HOUGHTAILING

Ann Marie Houghtailing identified as an actress and storyteller early on in life when she spent months at the age of 7 wearing a skirt on her head and pretending to be a nun while riding around on her Big Wheels with a small vial of “holy water” in the plastic trunk. After much prayer a new calling was heard and Houghtailing decided to turn her faux habit in for a pair of maryjanes with the goal of usurping Shirley Temple as the greatest child star of all time. Houghtailing attended the Drama Studio London in Berkeley, and in true renegade fashion dropped out to attend college and pursue other endeavors. Years later she returned to theater in San Diego where she performed in small theaters for heaps of pleasure and very little pay. In 2011 after spending years writing and collecting stories of her absurd life, Houghtailing has wrtten, rewritten and rewritten her first one-woman show, RENEGADE PRINCESS, which was a festival favorite in the 2011 Santa Fe Solo Performance Festival. Miss Houghtailing is the major mobilizer and field marshal of the MILLIONAIRE GIRLS’ MOVEMENT.